SIMI VALLEY : Rocketdyne Wises Up to Bird’s Nest Site

Whoever thought an owl couldn’t slow down a multimillion-dollar rocket development project never met the not-so-wise one that mistook a steel tower for a hollow oak tree.

Rocketdyne engineers were ready to test a rocket propulsion system Saturday when they found a great horned owl’s nest tucked in the center of a six-story engine test tower at the facility southeast of Simi Valley.

In the nest were two eggs, about the size of chicken eggs, that would have been roasted in the flames of a rocket test. Instead, they were carefully removed by Rocketdyne’s fire department and handed over to representatives of the state Department of Fish and Game, who took them to an incubation site in Simi Valley, hoping to hatch them.

The mother owl was last sighted early Tuesday. She had taken over a nest in the test tower originally built by a crow, said Jerry Thompson of the Department of Fish and Game. Great horned owls--distinguished by feathered tufts that crown their heads like horns--do not make their own nests, but take over abandoned ones, he said.

Jim Buzzell, the engineer in charge of the test area, was surveying the three-level test tower a week ago when a large bird flew off it.

“She startled me,” Buzzell said. “I thought it was a hawk.” Then, trying to locate where the owl had come from, he spotted a three-foot-long nest hidden beneath a light-blue grating.

On Tuesday, Rocketdyne’s fire department and the Department of Fish and Game removed the nest. At first the rescuers planned to cut the grating but concluded that that might harm the eggs.

Dean Lidstrom, a Rocketdyne firefighter and veteran mountain climber, was hoisted to a platform below the grating, where--held by ropes--he leaned backward over the edge until he could reach up into the nest.

“I’ve been rock climbing for 15 years so this is really simple,” he said after handing over the eggs to Thompson.

Thompson said the eggs ordinarily would hatch within 30 to 32 days, but these eggs were cool, indicating they may no longer be viable. “There’s no guarantee of hatchability, but we will make an attempt,” he said.

Rocketdyne engineers said this particular testing site had been dormant for six months, which gave the owl an opportunity to use it.

“We’re on a tight schedule to get this engine shipped to the customer by the end of the month,” said Steve Bommelje, a test engineer, but he said the incident did not delay testing plans. The engine is needed for a satellite launch, he said.

Rocketdyne, a division of Rockwell International, makes and tests rocket engines that are later sent to aerospace manufacturers such as McDonnell Douglas and Martin Marietta.